BIRTH CONTROL!!!!!! a political speech

First of all stop. Stop acting like it's 1950 and only married couples seeking to procreate are the ones bangin' (or the only ones who should be). You know it's not true. Shag shag shagging left right and center, by the left, right and center is occurring, whether young, old, straight, gay, married, single, monogamous or not. It's happening, and fairly often. This is a good thing, too. It's healthy for modern couples; it's a part of adult life that gives people great pleasure, which is nice in world where there are many things to make one not feel so good. And there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults making the informed decision to have safe sex, even if they have no designs to make a baby out of it. Stop stop stop acting like there is. Most of those people who act like this is wrong, making those of us who don't feel that way feel a need to find other reasons to justify the preventative care that contraception provides, are hypocrites. They are Catholic priests, who are forbidden from having sex (not that that stops them). They're trash-spewing blow-hard talk show hosts who go to tropical islands with a bunch of other white middle aged friends and pack a boat-load of Viagra, not prescribed in their name. They are the preachers who preach against non-baby-making sex, then seek prostitutes, sometimes male ones, for drugs and sex in vehicles or alleys. That's because demonizing sex like that is a really unhealthy outlook on something that is a natural part of being alive. Perhaps the most natural part. So let's all be grown ups and acknowledge sex is happening and we all are happy that there are many avenues to prevent Oops Babies from bursting forth into the world, feeling the burden of being a Mistake their whole lives. (Just kidding, Pleasant Surprises. I'm sure you're parents were happy once you arrived, 8 years after your next eldest brother or sister...)

Not to mention that there are plenty of couples, or single people, who'd love to be able to afford a child or more children but thanks to the tanked economy, it's not a really good idea for them right now. That's why it's called family planning. So you can plan for the best time to have that family expand and not be at the mercy of an institution--whose beliefs are not your beliefs but for some reason, they get to determine your personal business. (Or, that's how it would be if certain legislators had their way.)

Second, birth control and contraception is not solely a women's issue. You see, it takes a male and a female to make a baby. So a male and a female need to be conscientious and careful and concerned that the sex they're having is responsible sex and they're protected against any unwanted outcomes from having sex.

Third, the use of birth control to help manage pain from menstruation is a real and blessed thing. And men against birth control, even for this purpose, I have something to say to you: until it feels like a pack of evil elves are steadily and surely trying to escape from your scrotum with very dull but deliberate pick axes, shut your stupid mouths. You have NO IDEA what this is like. If men had periods, not only would there be a cure for cramping, that medication wouldn't need to get covered 100% by your employer and health plan once the new law is enacted because instead it would be paid in full by the government, no questions asked. You wouldn't have to find coupons for your most reliable but also most expensive tampons (which are then taxed!), those products would be subsidized. And whole sections of the Dept of Health would be dedicated to making sure "sanitary napkins" would seal stuff up better than Fort Freakin Knox. And it would all be free, nevermind taxed.

Fourth, anyone brave enough to stand up to all manner of absurdities, allegations, accusations and accostings from ill-informed belligerent misogynistic bullies most certainly deserves the highest praise. Heroic actions are actions in which one puts the greater good, in this case the health and well being of those in need of affordable access to preventive care in the form of contraception, ahead of their own needs, in this case a need for privacy and to live without the threat of harrassment for publicly expressing one's beliefs.

As I watched Sandra Fluke in interview after interview make the case for affordable preventative care for each individual human being, despite the objections an institution may try to impose upon the individual--such as the Catholic Church is, imposing its views on individuals seeking birth control--I'm so glad there are intelligent, poised women like her to articulate the rights of the individual over the institution. And I'm especially glad that the individual's rights are supported by the government's policies under this administration. God, and Inanna the Fertility Goddess, and any other deities you like, willing, it stays that way.